GLEN BURNIE, Md. — Fresh off of a Friday pep rally at Glen Burnie High School, 16-year-old Pamela Conyers took the family car to Harundale Mall and never returned.
The date was October 16 of 1970.
“I remember distinctly when Pam went missing,” recalled Michael Golden, one of Conyers’ classmates, “I remember that Monday morning I had trigonometry class with her and seeing her empty desk really brought it home, made it real.”
The very next day, some four days after Conyers disappeared, a man walking in a wooded area here where they were building the Waterford Overpass at Route 100 discovered what proved to be the victim’s vehicle.
“Pam’s body was found just a short distance from where that vehicle was recovered,” said Lt. Jacklyn Davis of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
More than 50 years later, police say advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy point to a suspect.
“That suspect is Forrest Clyde Williams III,” said Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal E. Awad, “However, Mr. Williams died in 2018.”
Police say Williams had moved to Maryland from Virginia and was attending Northeast High School in Pasadena at the time.
There is no evidence that he knew his victim, and detectives can’t say for sure that he acted alone.
“The case is not closed, but it feels like there is some resolution, but I still mourn her death,” said Golden, “I got to grow old. She didn’t. She’s forever 16.”
For now, police can’t comment on whether Williams may be linked to other unsolved murders from that same era, but they have ruled out any connection between Conyers’ murder and that of Sister Cathy Cesnik , which was highlighted in ‘The Keepers’ docuseries.
